Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Holidays Can be Confusing

Let me start off by saying that I don't consider myself to be a religious. I was raised Catholic and my husband was raised Buddhist. Now we are raising our kids to be good, honest, and respectful people. We do celebrate Christmas. My kids know we celebrate Christmas because it is Jesus' birthday. But that's about it.

Now my kids go to school and they are learning more about Christmas. They are also learning about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

At Thanksgiving my five year old said, "When was the first Thanksgiving."

"I'm not sure," I replied.

"That's when the Indians shared their food with the pilgrims," my five year said.

My seven year old joined in, "The pilgrims came to America to get away from the mean king in England. He was trying to tell them what to do."

"That's right, honey." I said.

Then my seven year old thought for a minute and said, "So Thanksgiving is sorta like Hanukkah."

"Huh?" I asked.

He explained, "Yeah, the Jews wanted their freedom so they escaped from Minnesota."

After choking back the giggles, I tried to help him gain a little better understanding of Minnesota.

So should I be worried that my seven year old came home from school yesterday and said, "Guess what mom! I'm the leader of my Kwanzaa group at school! Do you think we can play dreidel?"

Merry Kwanakkamas to you!

15 comments:

Momisodes said...

ROFL!!! Perhaps Minnesota was a little too cold :)

Anonymous said...

Oh my! This post made me laugh out loud! We too are struggling a bit with how to explain the holiday season. Apparently I need to look no further than the atlas.

hokgardner said...

A Kwanza dreidel in Minnesota!

TALON said...

Maybe your son will be working at the United Nations one day or maybe he's creating one huge homogenous religion :)

Rachel said...

LOL! That's hilarious!!! Minnesota... tee hee!

Asianmommy said...

That's great! I love how kids learn so much in school. Mine came home from school & told me about Eid & the 3rd eye. Amazing!

Boozy Tooth said...

Ha! So so funny! You have some bright and creative children Cookie! The Minnesota comment made me snort! Hilarious.

Lynn said...

Cookie - that is priceless! How well rounded is that?

Tam said...

This was too funny! Thanks for the comment on my blog!

Jannie Funster said...

I heard antisemitism is rampant in Minnesota, especially among those cheese making types.

JK! JK!!

cute, thanks for sharing.

Maude Lynn said...

I have to explain our lack of a dreidel and gelt every year!

Anonymous said...

I think it's good that kids are learning about other cultures in school. Hopefully this will breed a more open minded population since not all kids get that at home.

Heidi said...

Love this. I love how kids' minds work. Sometimes I'd much rather hear their take on things than try to come up with something on my own.

Michelle said...

Oh I love this! I am so entertained by what they gather from what they're taught at school.

If it makes you feel any better, we're Episcopal, and Mister Man goes to a Catholic school. So that mean king? Yep, that would be my religion kicking out the Pilgrims (as he so thoughtfully announced to his teacher). And that's just the start....

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Oh how cute, Cookie.... I love it!!!!! I think it's good for kids to learn ALL religions. You and hubby are doing the right thing.

Hugs,
Betsy